Definition of a Friend
by Snows Of Yester-Year
Summary: Another one shot. InuYasha tells Kagome about one of his greatest fears while she listens. InuYashaKagome


A/N: Well...I was going to get the first chapter of my multi-chapter finished and posted, but since I have no access to my home computer, that was not an option. Plus, I got this idea while looking at quotes, and it poked me for about an hour until I finally wrote it. Plus, gettingthis all nice and written up was an ideal cure for my inscessantly annoying insomnia. Yay. So, uh, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or any related titles, characters, etc. etc., and if youthought I did, you needhelp. I mean, if I owned it, would I be sitting in my room typing fanfics on a crappy computer? No, I would not. Conclusion: InuYasha no mine.

* * *

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

* * *

Kagome's shoes hit silently against the vast rock wall she was sitting over. She and InuYasha were seated on the edge of a high cliff, watching the sunset. It was peaceful and, at that moment, easy to forget the hardships they faced. It was nice to pretend that, even for just a little while, there was no world outside the invisible sphere of protection that resulted from the simple action of watching the fiery sun escape beneath the horizon.

InuYasha silently drummed his fingers against Tetsusaiga's hilt, barley taking in the fiery display. Kagome glanced at him, his eyes focused on the part of the sky that were colored the same color as his haori. He wasn't really looking at the sky, though. He was just watching the sky, thinking about something else. She returned her gaze to the sky. It wasn't so much that she was worried for InuYasha as…well, she obviously worried for him, but she couldn't place the source of the worry. She couldn't tell whether it originated from his unwillingness to talk about things or even his incessant silence, but she felt a mild concern for the hanyou with whom she had grown so close.

She felt her eyes drifting back over to the agitated half-demon (against her will, might I add) after a few more moments. She found it difficult to mask her concern for him, and even more difficult to try to figure out how she could help him – or even what was wrong with him. _Help me, InuYasha, _she thought. _I can't read your mind. Talk to me._

She returned her attention once again to the blazing sky. The sun was low now. Glaring at her with the last of it's strength before it disappeared, surrendering its' control of the sky to the moon, if only for the night. Someone had dyed the sun the same red color that claimed the rest of the sky, creating quite a sensational image: the blazing ruby, sinking below the horizon, the sky nearest to it colored a glorious golden color that would put all of the riches of the Pharaohs of Egypt to shame. Beyond that the majority of the sky had disguised itself the color of new copper – a brilliant, almost glaring red. Kagome remembered reading somewhere that the red sky at night meant good weather the next day; just what they needed, all sarcasm aside, considering that InuYasha was hell-bent on going to check out some rumors of some Shikon shards tomorrow. Might as well have good weather while doing that, because that will more then likely be the most pleasant thing about the day. Above the red in the sky was a thin strip of rose-tinted sky, separating the red of the sunset from the diamond-studded navy that claimed the rest of the expanse of sky.

"It's beautiful," Kagome murmured, shattering the penetrating silence.

"Hmph," InuYasha muttered, scowling at the sky and the red ruby of the sun that was disappearing ever faster.

Well, that didn't work. Trying again to get him to talk, she asked quietly, "Did you…ever watch the sky? Y'know, when you were younger?"

Something shifted in his eyes, which he cast downward at the grassy floor of the earth. "Yeah…my mother would drag me out sometimes to watch the sunset. Tell me stories about…all sorts of things, really. Dragons and demons and princesses trapped in castles…seems like she never ran out of stories to tell. She kept telling me them, too right up to the end…"

His voice tapered into nothing, his eyes focused on a cloud in the sky. He laughed aloud, surprising Kagome. "There was one story she loved. It was about a poor young boy who fell in love with a girl who had this…obsession with kimonos, I guess. Like, she would spend all of her money on the things. Of course, she was really beautiful, so she had all of these suitors hanging around her – humans _and _demons – and all of them making all sorts of offers to try to convince her to marry them. She always told all of them the same thing: 'If you can find me the most beautiful kimono ever made, I will agree to be your wife.' Well, they would all spend all of their time for months trying to find the most beautiful kimono, and then spend all of their money on these fabulous kimonos, only to have her tell them, "Nope, sorry, not the prettiest.'" InuYasha closed his eyes and leaned back a bit, remembering. "So this poor boy went up to her, not knowing of the challenge she asked all of her suitors of, and asked her to marry her. Didn't offer any gifts, no money, just went up and asked her. So she looked at him and said, 'What do you have to offer me?' and the boy said, 'My love for you, for I can afford nothing else.' So she looked at him and said, 'If you can find me the most beautiful kimono ever made, I will agree to be your wife.' So the boy left, kinda disheartened. All his friends told him to just forget the girl and find someone else, but he wouldn't give up. So he walked around, thinking. Even if he _could_ find the most beautiful kimono ever made, how could he afford it? So he sat on a cliff overlooking the sunset-" he gestured out to natures finest display unfolding before them "-to think awhile. He finally got the idea to _make_ her a kimono – but that still left the issue of where to get the material from. If it was going to make the finest kimono in the world, it had to be the best material anywhere, and that was not going to be cheap. He despaired, when he noticed the clouds in the sky. He had heard that clouds were softer and finer then any silk, and these clouds, which were dyed with the colors of the sunset, had a beauty that rivaled any cloth ever woven before. But he had to go somewhere where the clouds met the earth, and wait until the perfect sunset came along so that the clouds would be as beautiful as possible." InuYasha stretched, tilting his face toward the sky. It was now dark, the stars were out, and the moon was shedding its' silver light over everything.

"Go on," Kagome encouraged softly.

InuYasha glanced at her, and continued. "So, the boy went to the top of Mount Fuji, where he could gather the clouds with ease, and waited there for three months with no food or water until the perfect sunset came along. When it did, he gathered as many of the clouds as he could and rushed back to his home. Once there, he wove the clouds into a beautiful cloth, and from that cloth cut the kimono. He gave that kimono to the girl, and although it had no patterns on it, she thought it was the most beautiful thing she ever saw. 'It is glorious!' she declared. 'Where did you find it?' He smiled and responded, 'I did not find it; I made it for you from the clouds.' And she was so surprised that she asked him to explain, and he told her how he waited on top of Mount Fuji for all of that time, gathered the clouds, wove them into cloth, and used that cloth to create the kimono. She walked over to him and said, 'It is clear to me now. This is the most beautiful kimono I have ever seen, not due to elaborate patterns or vivid color, but because it was made for me out of love.' And she kissed him, they were married, bla, bla, bla, the end," he concluded lamely.

"Wow," whispered Kagome. "That was beautiful. You learned that from your mother?"

"Uh-huh. See that line of stars up there?" He pointed up to a band of stars that spanned the sky.

"Yeah."

"I know how they were made."

"Really? How?"

"It's another one of my mom's old stories." He lay back on his back, studying the sky. Kagome followed suit. "A boy and a girl were hopelessly in love, and their village was attacked by demons, who took the girl away into the sky. She cried so damn much that she left a trail of tears behind for the boy to follow, and they led him right to the girl and the demons. So he sleighed the big bad demons, saved the girl, everyone's happy. Mother loved that story. Why, I don't know, but she did." His eyes closed partway as he stared at the line of stars above them.

"…you miss her, don't you?"

"Keh."

Kagome rolled her eyes and watched the stars. After a few quiet moments, however, she heard from her left a very soft "Yes."

Kagome sat up, watching him. His eyes now shone with sadness as he watched the sky. She sighed heavily, reaching over and scratching him behind the ears. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"…no."

"Why?"

"I dunno."

"_InuYasha_," she said firmly, peering down at him. "I'm not going to laugh at you or make fun at you or anything. You can talk to me, InuYasha. Anytime. I'll listen."

"Do you think I haven't already picked up on that? It's nothing, Kagome. Forget it."

"No!"

"What!"

"Look, I'm not leaving you alone until you tell me what the heck is bothering you."

"K-"

"Uh-uh! No! Don't you 'keh' me and brush it off like it's nothing!" She pulled him forcibly into a sitting position. "I want to _help _you, InuYasha, and I can't very well do that if you don't te-"

He jerked her into an abrupt hug. "I'm scared, alright?" he growled, pulling her closer. "Before you all, my mother had been the only one who ever showed me kindness, who ever treated me as more then just a dirty half-breed. Of course I miss her. I miss her more then you could even imagine. When she died, I had no one. No one to talk to me, to one to sit with me on my human nights, no one to tell me stories, to one to sit and watch the sunset with…no one. I was alone. Even with Kikyo…perhaps if our time together wasn't cut short-" Kagome stiffened slightly "-she would have done those things with me. But you were the first since my mother to comfort me on my human nights, or laugh at me, or…" he trailed off. Kagome relaxed a bit.

"…or make me feel really wanted," he finished softly.

She gave a soft sigh and nuzzled his shoulder, rubbing his back softly. "Shh, it's okay. You're fine now."

"I know. And it's because you are here. And I _am _scared; I'm scared something will happen to you in a battle…if your wounded, or killed, and it were my fault because I couldn't protect you…and then…"

She remained silent for a moment, thinking. She finally looked up at him. "InuYasha?"

He glanced at her.

She turned around so she was facing the midnight blue sky once again, resting her back against his chest. "I don't know what our future holds any more then you do," she said slowly, "but it would take the sting of death to keep me from you. I will never abandon you, InuYasha. Remember that."

He remained silent for several moments, holding her against him and softly rubbing her arms. He startled her lightly by kissing her on top of her head and whispering, "Thank you."

She allowed a small smile to grace her lips before squeezing his hand and laughing lightly, "Any time."


End file.
